Carrying walking sticks instead of rifles, and wearing blazers instead of khaki fatigues, this weekend the soldiers, sailors and airmen of D-day will make their final massed return to Normandy.

While private pilgrimages to Normandy will continue, the 60th anniversary will be the last official commemoration of the largest combined invasion the world has seen.

The Queen will be there, as will Tony Blair, the French president, Jacques Chirac, George Bush and for the first time the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. But the guests of honour will be the estimated 10,000 veterans and their families who will crowd the beaches, cemeteries and memorials of Normandy for a series of services and displays.

Hundreds of events are planned for the weekend, from intimate wreath-laying ceremonies involving just a handful of veterans in French villages, to the main international extravaganza - with marching bands, a naval spectacular and the Red Arrows - at Arromanches on Sunday afternoon.

D-day was the biggest operation of its kind in history and by the end of the first week of Operation Overlord, thousands of landing craft and planes had disgorged on to the Normandy coast an allied force of about 500,000 men.

This time the veterans will have to outmanoeuvre legions of French gendarmes amid a massive security operation that has been thrown into place to protect the 17 heads of state who will be there.

About 9,000 French troops arrived in the area this week to support the 6,300 gendarmes and 2,300 police officers on duty, while private planes straying into Normandy air space during the weekend's events risk being shot down, according to French defence officials.

But the biggest enemy for everybody, from the veterans to the locals, is likely to be the traffic. Many of the roads in Normandy are no bigger now than when the tanks and jeeps of the invasion force trundled along them 60 years ago.

"Have you seen Normandy?" one Ministry of Defence source said. "It is a logistical nightmare. It's like Glastonbury, only worse, because at least when you've got them in the field they stay there. We're going to have to move all these people along country lanes, and to give them the freedom of movement they want and deserve is tremendously difficult. But we are determined to do it."

Veterans and the government initially fell out over plans for the commemoration, with veterans' organisations accusing ministers of showing little enthusiasm for the events. But Lesley Frost, chairman of the Normandy Veterans Association, said they were now happy with the part being played by the government.

"Naturally our members are looking forward to the 5th and 6th of June. We are extremely confident that this, the last of the large gatherings of veterans in Normandy, will do justice to this very special occasion."

More than 7,000 veterans have registered their intention to travel to Normandy with the Veterans Agency. But the government estimates that thousands more could make the trip. The numbers have been swollen by the government's offer of one-year free passports for veterans, half-price tickets on some Channel ferries, and by the establishment of a £10m "heroes' return" travel fund paid for by the national lottery. The French authorities are presenting every veteran who attends a souvenir D-day medal.

Including family and care staff, the British presence in Normandy could be as high as 40,000.

Galina Tours has organised 31 coaches with 49 seats on each that will be full to the brim with veterans and their families. For Barry Mathews, its managing director, it has been an organisational feat on a par with D-day itself.

As well the coaches, the company will be taking four "control cars" containing three interpreters, a doctor and a nurse. "It is just a precaution but if, God forbid, somebody does end up in Caen general hospital, we'll be able to talk to the doctors and find out what is going on."

Galina was the official tour operator for the 50th D-day anniversary commemorations, but then it only filled 16 coaches.

Mr Mathews puts the increase down to a growing interest among a younger generation.

"I would say that the number of veterans we are taking back this time is about the same, but as well as the veterans' children, you have now also got their grandchildren, many of whom are in their 20s and 30s."